Hales, St Margaret's Church - Gerard Stamp

The following is adapted from the introduction to the catalogue for the 2006 solo exhibition, written by Dan Cruickshank:

Gerard, inspired by the work of J.M.W. Turner, John Sell Cotman and John Piper, has found a way. Stamp has honed the techniques - indeed pushed back the boundaries - of watercolour painting. Not only are some of his watercolours of a dauntingly huge scale but also they are incredibly detailed and manage to capture both the ethereal light of the Norfolk coast and countryside at dawn or dusk and the quality of centuries-old oak, stone, brick and tile. To achieve this Stamp, through experimentation, has developed a technique in which an initial watercolour is soaked and worked in water to make its colours soft and mellow and then, when dry, reworked in judicious manner. Strange, but it works.